Harp here. This is the last chapter. Comment and let me know what you think, if you'd like. I'm currently working on a sequel to The Achen Enforcer called The White Woods, and am about halfway through. See my profile for updates. Cheers, and thanks for reading..
All characters are over the age of 18.
The Ballad of Decker Crane
Harp Strathe
Chapter Thirteen
Decker sent out a message, things he'd planned for in motion now. But plans were one thing and carrying them out another in this crazy, random existence. You never knew how things were going to play out, and Persya being taken had not been in his original figuring.
Nor had what Decker saw when he rode up to his house, Cote lathered. Adya was in front of Kay. Dawine had gone to stand next to Bai, who was using a stick to prop himself and was sweating. He looked at her, his mouth tight. Chione stood with Cab. Yenna and Lily stood with Grace. There was no sign of Persya.
There were three Prime transports, all right, all official, white with the blue lines. In front of those transports were three layers of armored Prime pricks. In their hands, they each held one of those fancy pressure rifles that could do catastrophic damage even if they weren't full of bullets tipped with safron. They were precise and lethal.
Decker began to get a bad feeling. His plans depended on a peacable discussion and this didn't look peacable at all. The Cromwells had to know the women wouldn't be of any use as consorts anymore, but for some reason, they had come for them anyway. And they'd gotten Prime Central to back them up. That was a shitload of guns.
Decker threw himself off the horse, his eyes darting, joining them as Bryn came to him, tears on her face. She leaned on him.
He spoke to the officers. "I'm Decker. This is my land. You're trespassing."
A man came from the back, weaving his way through. He was a Prime prick if there ever was one, gray hair and a fancy suit.
"I am Dr. Kine, the chief medical officer for the Center of Genetic Research on Pedige," the fuckwad said. "In the criminal seizure of the consorts, there was an explosion and then a fire and the center was destroyed, as well as all the material and research notes. We are here to recover the last remaining sources of genetic material that represent decades of research."
This wasn't good. Decker had hoped the Cromwells wouldn't find the women, and after that had assumed they wouldn't want them anymore, and that even if they did, that they'd try persuasion first. The rifles were pointed down at the moment, but these were an awful lot of Prime soldiers, even if they'd come to arrest them. It looked more like a fucking firing squad.
"They don't belong to you," Kay breathed, seeing how things were going as well, his arm coming over Adya's shoulder from behind. The girl leaned on him.
The doctor's top lip cleared his teeth. "No Pedigean child consort would be left to be abused by a frontier criminal--"
Kay sounded furious. "Shut your mouth. I don't want her to even know something that vile exists in this world and you just brought it up. She's a child. That's in your head, not mine."
That was when Dr. Kine gestured at the Prime officers, and that was also when Decker's gut went sideways. The officers leveled their rifles, taking careful aim. Fuck.
"Fuck," Cab said, stepping in front of Chione, Kay pushing Adya away from himself.
Decker's bad feeling had been right. Prime hadn't come to talk. This was an assassination, and they were going to shoot in among the women to pick the men off. All his plans and it had come to shooting instead of talking, and if that wasn't irony, he didn't know what was. He yanked Bryn behind himself, his hand going to his gun, although there would be no point.
Well, shit.
#
(Persya)
Persya waited. She'd been walking to the garden to find Bryn and a transport had suddenly been in front of her, three Prime officers coming out of it. She'd turned to see Kay running toward her with his gun drawn and Adya running toward the house where he'd sent her.
"No, Kay," she'd cried. "They'll shoot you."
He had ignored her and then taken cover as the officers had fired. It had been so fast. She hadn't even seen if he'd gotten hit, one of the officers grabbing her and yanking her in even as the transport rose.
Decker was at the Briken enclosure checking the idium panels. She'd said goodbye to him this morning and now she'd probably never see him again. The Cromwells had come. She didn't know why they would want her back, or why she'd been taken and not the others. Somehow she didn't think they were going to be left alone either.
Inside the transport, the officers had stared at her, one on each side, holding her arms.
"That's a Pedigean consort?" one of them had said, his eyes all over her. "Now I know what they mean."
"Shut up," the officer in the front had said.
She hadn't moved, not looking at any of them. This was how it was going to end, after everything they'd been through, after all Decker and the other men had done to protect them. She'd maybe never know the fate of those she'd just left behind.
At one time, she hadn't really understood why Decker and the other men had been so reluctant to have them stay at Briken Ranch. But first, there had been Cochrain's men. That idiot, Emmet, could have just shot Decker instead of arguing with him until Bai could get the fence moved to free the brikens. Then the men had managed to fight off a mob and Bai and Decker had gotten shot, and Tag. Decker had never even mentioned the risk he'd taken for them, but she knew him now. It was just how he was. He gave nothing or he gave everything. Her nose was burning and she took a deep breath, blinking. She wanted to get back to him so bad.
But not even Decker could get ahead of this. This wasn't some minor criminal or a bunch of lustful frontier men. This was Prime doing the bidding of the Cromwells. Kill these officers and more would come. They'd lock him up forever in a hole like he hated or just kill him. Decker had been right not to want to keep her. Her fists clenched and her chest ached. She loved him, but that wouldn't matter to the Cromwells. She and the other women didn't have any rights. The girls didn't. They were property, nothing more than things to these people.
Decker would still try to get her back. She knew that. He wouldn't let it go. He'd been fighting his whole life, and he hated losing. He'd try until they killed him. She hated them, hated the Cromwells. It wasn't right.
The transport landed and opened, the men leading her off. She recognized the place she'd run from long ago, escaping Mr. Cochrain. The Red Door. The whorehouse. They brought her to a luxurious room with sofas everywhere, releasing her. She had a feeling she knew the man she was about to meet. But she wasn't the same woman he'd met before. And she knew something he didn't.
He'd want to take her back to Pedige, probably. When they got into the transport, she'd sing him and any Prime officers he'd brought to their doom and then she'd get home where she belonged. Maybe they could run, or hide, but she didn't see how, not from Prime. She felt sick, walking to look out of a simulated window. She was seeing green rolling hills and a lake, but that wasn't what was there, not for real. That way was home, brikens and a forest in the middle of a barren wasteland and a notorious outlaw who loved her.
"Persya," a voice said.
She turned around. He looked stiff, in Prime clothing, a white shirt with a crisp collar and a waistcoat and tall black boots. He was shorter than she remembered. A defined jaw, almost delicate, and a sensual mouth. He had wavy brown hair that was a little too uniform, probably dyed, a strand artfully falling across his cheek. She supposed she'd been caught up in the romance of him and hadn't wanted to see him for what he was, just another jaded Prime man trying to look younger and lusting after a woman who could be his daughter in age.
